


Bust Out The Loofah!

by salsawrites



Series: Gaster One-shots [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Amnesia, Developing Relationship, Gen, Good W. D. Gaster, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:47:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27312856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salsawrites/pseuds/salsawrites
Summary: The reader has been given the responsibility to take care of Gaster after he is diagnosed with dissociative amnesia. Being his romantic partner, it is a difficult time for you both to overcome. After a particularly emotional day, you offer to run him a bath.
Relationships: W. D. Gaster/Reader
Series: Gaster One-shots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994101
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39





	Bust Out The Loofah!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first post to AO3! Please be kind :')  
> The one-shot comes from inspiration from a visual novel a friend and I are currently brainstorming, and this is one of the scenes that came out of it! I absolutely had to give into my inhibitions and write it.   
> Set in a timeline in which Gaster experiences severe distress and develops dissociative amnesia as a result. The Reader (or in the game's case, the Player), doubles as his guardian and partner as they aid him in his rehabilitation.  
> Thank you for reading!

You draw the bath and add a generous amount of lavender-scented bath mixture, swilling it around with your hands. Now all you have to do was wait for Gaster. You do so nervously. 

You’d bathed each other before - many times, in fact - but so much is different now. From what you can tell, therapy is helping, and Gaster remembers little things every day; thinking about the morning he recalled your favourite breakfast meal never fails to make you smile. Things are certainly pointing in the right direction now.

“… Hello?” a hesitant voice resounds from outside, accompanied by three sharp knocks at the door.

“The bath’s ready, Gaster, you can come in,” you reassure him. Sensing his apprehension, your eyes courteously trace their way to the floor.

After a tense moment (you swear you can hear him practicing deep breaths before turning the doorknob), he shuffles his way into the bathroom and shuts the door silently behind him. ‘Oh, Gods,’ you think, helplessly, ‘he came in with nothing on!’ 

Of course, you’d been expecting it, considering you both agreed as such before you shot to the bathroom to run some water. Maybe it’s because Gaster has no recollection of doing this with you before. 

Who were you trying to fool? Of course that's the reason.

Your mind must have been wandering noisily because Gaster cuts through your thoughts as soon as they’d been planted, “I’ll just, erm… step in, shall I?” 

Gaster doesn’t wait for your answer. You hear the water gently stirring as he lowers himself and lets out a long sigh he’s probably been holding the entire day. Once he’s in, you stop yourself from peaking. “Is it okay for me to look?” you prompt, opting to ask his consent before doing something as intimate as bathing him. Gaster’s breath hitches at the question, and you can tell there’s purple plastered across his face already.

“Yes,” Gaster seems to grate out the answer almost painfully. You worry for a moment, but once you look up, his eyes meet yours, and you feel like you’re in one of those corny fanfictions: his cheekbones are flushed, and his eye lights seem to be searching for something in your expression that says ‘it’s okay’.

With a knowing look, your hand reaches out to his own, still resting on the side of the bath, and give it a firm squeeze. “It’s okay,” you affirm kindly and rub over the top of his hand with your thumb. Gaster lets out another sigh - it’s clear he’s having a hard time settling into the bathtub and your heart aches to see him so self-conscious and unsure.

“Yes, I know it’s okay,” he agrees, but the conviction isn’t all there.

“Would it help if I started with the sponge?” you probe, picking up the sponge and waving it about invitingly. He can’t help but smile.

“Okay,” is all he says before you get to work wetting the utensil and rubbing it lightly over his cervical vertebrae. He shivers but shows no sign of discomfort; in fact, his smile cracks slightly wider and you feel him relax under your ministrations.

You slowly move on to different places, frequently taking small breaks to ask him if everything’s alright, and every time he nods quietly for you to continue. As the intimate moment drags on, your resolve emboldens and your hand gets firmer - you swear at some point, it becomes a massage with the addition of a sponge until you decide to put it down. Gaster tilts his head to look at you questioningly before reaching your hands out and asking with soft eyes if you can touch him. He nods again.

“Are you sure?” you ask.

“I’m… I’m sure,” Gaster’s voice comes out as a tremulous breath and you feel your brain do a crazed little flip in your head as his bones rattle against the porcelain basin. You’ve heard him sound like that before - of course! - but to hear it again after everything does something to you.

With bridled excitement, you reach out to ghost your fingers over his shoulder blades and Gaster practically jolts inside of the bath. Before you can jolt back in response, he glances back at you with pleading eyes. ‘Shit, okay,’ you think helplessly to yourself before firmly planting your hands over his shoulders, rubbing your thumb across the expanse of his scapula. You feel some sort of bad knowing how sensitive he is, so you actively avoid those places. ‘This is supposed to be relaxing for him,’ you remind yourself, ‘it’s not supposed to be anything more than that.’

Despite your inner pep talk, you can’t help but pay a painful amount of attention to Gaster and his reactions. You really want to make this good for him and you definitely don’t want to overstep boundaries, so you lighten the touch on his shoulders, and you can hear him only half-stifle a whine. You decide to move on entirely and begin the same treatment on his neck. The neck’s always a safer bet than anywhere near the ribs, anyway.

“I know you said this is fine and all, Gaster,” you say while digging your thumbs into his neck, and he shudders, “but if you just want me to leave so you can bathe yourself we can-”

“No,” he retorts desperately, flipping around in the bath to grasp your hand. The water sloshes up the walls of the basin and gets your shirt wet which Gaster sheepishly apologises for. “I’m sorry, I… I don’t want you to leave, this could be good for both of us.”

There’s a gentle disembodied rumble resonating from him.

You’re not thinking, but your SOUL feels an eager tug and you follow it, leaning into the wall of the bath with your hand still cocooned by Gaster’s. His breath tickles your face when you get close enough, and every breath he takes is a rasp of his low voice and a grumble of his bones. 

“I don’t want you to do anything you regret,” you counter, trying to wiggle your hand free. 

The look you get in response is beseeching, almost demanding; you can feel him telling you he doesn’t want you to leave, so you move your captured hand out of his hold and cup his jaw. The skeleton monster nestles his face further into your touch and turns his head slightly to kiss your palm. The blush donning his cheekbones hasn’t faded a bit - it’s deepening in fact - and he manages a glance up at you before laving his tongue over the expanse of skin. It’s got you beaming dumbly at the contact. 

“I won’t regret it,” he croons, peppering small kisses across your palm and up your wrist, “you’ve been so good to me, dear, helped me to remember so many things. That’s something I cannot forget,” Gaster gazes so meaningfully, his eye lights so bright you think it could ache. You let your hand go limp as he carries on with his butterfly kisses, up to your arm now, and soon enough it seems you’re both blushing an equal amount.

Oh, you love this monster dearly.


End file.
